Webuild has begun training prisoners in Italy to work on its project to build the Naples-Bari High-Speed Railway.
The idea is to help prisoners reintegrate while shoring up the busy contractor’s supply of qualified workers and technicians.
Working with Italy’s Department of Penitentiary Administration, Webuild will train and deploy 10 prisoners, starting with four from the Benevento district prison.
Following a selection process carried out with the Department and work agency Randstad, the first four candidates got initial training inside prison before basic training in construction trades.
They’re now working on the Apice-Hirpinia lot of the Naples-Bari railway, of which Webuild is building four sections: Naples-Cancello, Apice-Hirpinia, Hirpinia-Orsara and Orsara-Bovino.
In all, around 2,300 people are working on the sections.
Selection interviews are now taking place for five more prisoners in a district prison in the Province of Avellino.
They’ll be deployed on the Hirpinia-Orsara lot in Avellino, a central section of the Naples-Bari route.
In 2024, Webuild hired 13,000 people, 2,900 of them in Italy.
Webuild said the project to employ prisoners began with an agreement signed with the Ministry of Justice in 2023.
- Subscribe here to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a week
